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Vintage Phono Stage? pros and cons

With so many different phono stages out there, why buy new? There has to be some fantastic deals out there on vintage phono stages if you know your history of the giants going back in time. Do the new phono stages offer anything new? has the technology gotten better or is ease of flexibility the only thing that has improved? does the sound degrade over time?
musichead
elizabeth
6,726 posts
 
Depends on what price rangee your talkin' about.
In the $300 to $1000. range.. new is good, recent used of those is good.
For the big ticket, $2,000 and up retail, vintage is fine.
New designs are good, but the vintaage ones are pretty good too.
This is, of course just my opinion.
I own currently:
Bryston 1.5 new
Audio Research SP-15 preamp with phono.
Audio Research PH-2 balanced phono
macdadtexas
1,794 posts
 
Elizabeth has hit it on the head. I think if you like warm for the slant of your system, then vintage can/is better in general.

In fact, I love most of the vintage phono/preamps/recievers I have heard.
t_bone
1,182 posts
 
Musichead,
You are right. If you know your history, you can get a killer phono stage for not huge money. I find the best ones are embedded in top-notch preamps from the late 1970s. I have one I will be hooking up again tonight. It is a joy.
Vintage pres (with decent phono stages) I currently own:
Jadis JP-80 (euphonic)
Pioneer C-Z1 (ridiculously transparent, not "solid state-y")
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